Constructive recurrences for determinants and permanents of banded Toeplitz matrices

Abstract

For fixed nonnegative integers $m_1,m_2$, let $A_n=(a_{j-i})_{i,j=1}^n$ be the leading $n\times n$ section of a Toeplitz matrix with lower and upper semibandwidths $m_1$ and $m_2$. We give two constructive Laplace-expansion methods for scalar recurrences of $\det A_n$ and $\perm A_n$. The increasing-rows method eliminates a fixed family of boundary cofactors and gives recurrence order at most $d=\binom{m_1+m_2}{m_1}$ for both sequences. The row-column method closes normalized boundary minors recursively and packages them in a sparse transfer matrix. Its reachable states are classified exactly: level $j$ is indexed by a pair of $j$-subsets of $[m_1]$ and $[m_2]$. Hence the transfer dimension is $d$, and we obtain an explicit formula for the number of nonzero transitions. For determinants, the complementary cofactors of the increasing-rows construction are coordinates of the classical compound companion representation. The independently constructed row-column transfer has the Widom characteristic polynomial and is generically similar to the compound transfer. Thus the order $d$ recurrence is generically minimal for the unrestricted fixed-band determinant family. For permanents the same state graph gives the binomial upper bound, without a general minimality claim. The pentadiagonal case recovers Sweet's order-six determinant recurrence and its permanent analogue, while the one-superdiagonal family gives closed scalar recurrences and rational generating functions. Position-dependent band weights preserve the finite state graph but replace the constant transfer by a cocycle. For cyclic determinants, Fourier diagonalization produces all subset products of the symbol roots and a generically minimal annihilator of degree $2^{m_1+m_2}$, corresponding to the passage from one exterior degree to the full exterior algebra.